2003年10月份甘肃省高等教育自学考试英语阅读(二)试题.doc

2003年10月份甘肃省高等教育自学考试英语阅读（二）试题考生注意：本试题的所有答案一律写在答题纸上，否则不计分。一、词汇 （Vocabulary） （30 points， 1 point for each）I. Match the words from Column A with the definitions from Column BA B1. effective a. see clearly，prove something true2. counter b. a machine that carries people or things from place to place3. inattentiveness c. change of voice in level4. product d. an out-dated idea or expression5. identify e. a table where people are served in a shop， bank， hotel， etc.6. vehicle f. something Produced in a factory or on a farm7. clich g. in a pleasant or encouraging way8. strengthen h. having a noticeable effect9. inflection i. giving no attention10. favorably j. make something strong or strongerII. Study each sentence carefully and choose A，B，C or D that has the closest meaning to the underlined word or phrase.1. but suspicion fell on Islamic militants who have been waging violent campaign to overthrow the secular Egyptian Government.A. continuing in B. beginning in C. engaging in D. struggling in2. Harry Paulinanas， 23， also from Sydney， said he was still stunned hours afterthe attack.A. surprised B. shocked C. worried D. unconscious3. The windscreen and five of its windows had been shattered by the gunfire.A. broken B. scattered C. shot D. blown away4. Inside， scores of Egyptian officials shouted orders and questions as they herded a crowd of frightened tourists into the restaurant.A. looked after B. feeded C. drove D. took5. As they filed by， they passed a bottle of water still intact that lay in a pool ofblood.A. untouched B. complete C. broken D. undamaged6. Her frail legs were covered with shrapnel and glass wounds.A. injured B. front C. broken D. weak7. Radical groups have in the past targeted foreign tourists in an effort to cripple the countrys tourist industry.A. aimed at B. directed towards C. shot at D. made a goal of8. The spate of shootings had appeared to be easing recentlyA. relaxing B. weakeningC. feeling at home D. becoming less tight9 however， with attacks mainly confined to tourists visiting the south of the country.A. limited to B. connected with C. held onto D. shut up10. The pilgrims caught up in yesterdays attack had started their journey in Athens and continued to Jerusalem before arriving in Cairo.A. captured by B. stopped byC. held up with D. involved inIII. Scan through Reading Passage 1 and find the words which have the same or similar meanings to the definitions below.Note： The numbers in the brackets refer to the numbers of paragraphs inthe Reading Passage.1.- （1） something that can not be explained or understood2.- （1） power and skill， esp. to do， think， make etc.3.- （2） send over some distance4.- （3） direct the course of5.- （4） an instrument for showing direction6.- （5） exactly correct7.- （6） find the size， length， amount， etc.8.- （7） change in position or direction9.- （8） trust10.- （8） beyond what is usual or necessaryReading Passage 11. Science seems to be getting closer to answering a very old mystery. Homing pigeons can be taken hundred of miles from their home. When they are let go to fly again， they find their way home. Because of this special ability to find home， pigeons have been used as messengers for hundreds of years.2. Today people even keep homing pigeons for racing as a sport. The birds are shipped to some chosen place a few hundred miles away. Then all of them are let go together. The winner is the bird that goes home first. A good racer can make it home 500 miles away in a single day.3. The mystery of the homing pigeon is in how it navigates and how it finds home. It may be taken away in a covered-up cage， even a cage that is turned round and round to purposely mix up any sense of direction. To get home， it must fly over the country that it has never seen before.4. Suppose this were to happen to you What would you need to find your way home （besides a good pair of legs） I think I would ask for a compass， which always points north， to help find direction. I would want a map. If a map shows where my home is， then I can use the compass to point me in the direction toward home. What we are talking about shows the two parts of the problem of the homing pigeon. Much of the study of homing pigeons leads to the idea that pigeons need the same kinds of information. They need to know how to tell direction and they need something like a map to tell which direction is toward home.5. The first part seems to be pretty well answered， and we know of two ways that pigeons tell direction. First， they use the sun. Just getting rough direction from the sun is easy. It rises somewhere toward the east and sets somewhere toward the west. Getting accurate directions from the sun take more care. You need to pay attention to the time of the year. Then you need to watch the path of the sun closely at each hour of the day. To tell direction accurately from the sun， a person need to know the exact time.6. All plants and animals that have been studied carefully （including the human ） seem to have built-in clocks. These biological clocks， as they are called， usually are not quite exact in measuring time. However， they work pretty well because they are reset each day， maybe when the sun comes up.7. Do pigeons use their biological clocks to help them find direction from the sun We can keep pigeons in a room lighted only by lamps. And we can time the lighting to make their artificial days start at some different time form the real outside day. After a while we have shifted their clocks. Now we take them far away from home and let them go on a sunny day. Most of them start out as if they know just which way to go， but choose a wrong direction. They have picked a direction that would be correct for the position of the sun and the time of day according to their shifted clocks.8. We have talked about one of the more complex experiments that leads to the belief that homing pigeons can tell directions by the sun. What happens when the sky is darkly overcast by clouds and no one can see where the sun is Then the pigeons still find their way home. The same experiment we talked about has been repeated many times on sunny days and the result was always the same. But on very overcast days those clock-shifted pigeons are just as good as normal pigeons in starting out in the right directions. So it seems that pigeons also have some extra sense of directions to use when they cannot see the sun.二、阅读理解 （Reading comprehension） （30 points， 1 point for each）I. All the statements are closely related to Reading Passage 2. Skim over this passage and decide whether they are True or False. Write a “T” before true statements and an “F” before false ones.1. The first American astronaut to walk in space must have performed this feat in 1965.2. Before walking in outer space， astronauts have to learn how to control the movements of their bodies in an environment completely different form that on earth.3. Sputnik is the name of the first man-made satellite launched in space in 1858.4. According to the article， one of the reasons that a satellite can make a complete revolution round the earth in a much shorter period of time than the moon is that a satellite travels closer to the earth.5. It was probably in 1960 that the first spaceship containing a man was launched into space and made a short but successful flight.Reading Passage 21. The whole world seemed to be black， black nothingness. The sky was black with bright， shining stars that never twinkled. The sun， a white， burning disk， seemed to hang in the black velvet of the surrounding heavens. This was the scene that spread before the eyes of the first astronaut who left his spaceship to walk in outer space. The name of the Russian astronaut who performed this feat was Leonov， and the date of his walk in space was March 18， 1965. Several months later a similar feat was performed by the first American astronaut to walk in space. Both of these space walkers had spent months previous to their flight learning how to control their movements under the strange conditions which exist in space. Wearing their thick space suits， they learned to deal with an environment where there is neither weight or gravity， neither up nor down.2. We do not realize how much we depend on the earths gravity until we are deprived of it. Then our feet no longer stay on the ground， we float around in the air， and the slightest touch may send us drifting off in the opposite direction.3. In the laboratories where astronauts are trained for their journey， they are subjected to conditions that resemble those of flight. It takes time for them to prepare for the great changes that occur in space. When the spaceship leaves the earth at tremendous speed， the astronauts feel as if they are being crushed against the spaceship floor. Later， when they leave the zone of the earths gravitation， they are unable to stay in one place. Simple actions， such as eating and drinking， become very difficult to perform. You may get an inkling of what the astronauts have to deal with if you try to drink a glass of water while standing on your head or while just lying down.4. The beginnings of mans conquest of space took place in 1958， seven years before Leonovs trip. The first successful launching of Sputnik demonstrated that it was indeed possible to send objects far enough out of range of earths gravity so that they would not fall back to earth. Rather， such objects could be forced to revolve about the earth， just as the moon does. However， while the moon is so far from earth that it takes it a month to revolve around the earth， man-made satellites， which are closer to earth， can make a complete revolution in a few hours.5. It was three years after the first satellite launching that a spaceship containing a man made a successful flight. The flight lasted less than two hours， but it pointed the way to future developments.II. Read Reading Passages 3 and 4. Read the two passages fast and answer questions 110 （Reading Passage 3） and questions 11-20 （Reading Passage 4）1. What is the primary purpose of the IWCA. To protect their whaling industry.B. To protect whales from extinction.C. To limit the number of whales that may be killed per year.2. Paragraph 2 implies that a large number of bowhead whales were killed in the nineteenth century because _.A. they are slow swimmersB. they were abundant in the Bering SeaC. they are bigger and， therefore， better targets3. Why cant the IWC enforce its regulationsA. Because countries interested in commercial whaling founded theorganization themselves.B. Because it is only a conservationist group， which has no laws or armies.C. Because it is not so strong as those countries such as the United States， Japan and the Soviet Union.4. According to Paragraph 3 _.A. the number of countries involved in commercial whaling had decreasedB. the IWC has been steadily increasing its quotasC. Japan and the Soviet Union support large cuts in whale quotas5. Japan and the Soviet Union hesitate to disregard the IWC regulations because _.A. they want to preserve endangered speciesB. public pressure in the United States has had serious consequencesC. their national economies are dependent upon whaling.6. Which of the following statements is trueA. The bowhead whale is a new source of food for Eskimos.B. It took many years before the bowhead whale completely recoveredform its initial slaughter.C. Even minimal hunting may be devastating for the bowhead whale.7. The IWC failed to ban hunting of the bowhead whale mostly for the reasonthat _.A. the United States government protested it loudlyB. the United States laws already limit the number of bowhead whales that may be killed per yearC. Alaskan Eskimos are strongly opposed to the ban8. The Pribilof Islands _.A. are the year-round home of the northern fur sealB. were previously owned by RussiaC. were discovered by a Russian whaling ship9. The treaty signed in 1911 regarding the northern fur seal _.A. restrict seal huntingB. bans female seal huntingC. resulted in the near extinction of the fur seal10. In this article， the author tells the reader _.A. the consequences of whaling in AlaskaB. seal hunting on the Pribilof IslandsC. how man has endangered seals and whales11. In Paragraph 1， the author uses the term Bayesian analysis _.A. to explain the complication of informationB. to state the importance of informationC. to show the difficulties to calculate information12. The best information given in Paragraph 3 is that _.A. strategic planning is a less direct use of information， but is the mostimportant application in the business worldB. not used in the strategic sense， the information is often called intelligenceC. intelligence enables the researcher to recognize potential threats and opportunities.13. From the information given in Paragraph 4， decide which statements isNOT true.A. Information can help the researcher to recognize potential threats.B. Information can help the managers in decision making.C. Information can prevent the managers from breaking the law.14. The best information Paragraphs 1，2，3 and 4 give the readers is _.A. about the advantages of informationB. about the two valuable applications of informationC. about the value and importance of information15. Which paragraphs discusses the essential application of informationA. Paragraphs 1 and 2B. Paragraphs 2 and 3C. Paragraphs 3 and 416. “ The sheer mass of available data makes research a frustrating task.” This statement _.A. proves that too many data make research a hard jobB. implies that too many cooks spoil the soupC. show that too many data frustrate the research17. In Paragraph 8， the first sentence means that _.A. the hardest thing is on what standard to assess the cost and benefits ofinformationB. the hardest thing is using what measurement to evaluate the benefits and costC. the hardest thing is how to make the benefits of the information worth their cost.18. “Another consideration is whether the information addresses a recurring problem or can be applied to other situations in the future.” This statements means that _.A. people have to see if the information can speak to another problem in future.B. people have to think if the information can set itself to work at repeated problem and be used for future.C. people have to see if the information can arouse a repeated problem and be used for future.19. “Each researcher constantly weighs the costs and benefits of information， if only on an unconscious level.” The underlined part means that _.A. the researcher often calculate the costs and benefits of informationB. the researcher often puts costs and benefits on informationC. the researcher often puts more emphases on information20. Paragraph 5， 6， 7 and 8 mainly discuss _.A. the associated costs of informationB. the fragment and boundless resource of informationC. the costs and problems of informationReading Passage 31. As spring comes to the rough Bering Sea and the gigantic ice floes begin to melt， the water becomes alive with migrating animals. Both whales， the graceful giants of the deep， and sleek， gray seals can be seen swimming northward through narrow channels in the shifting ice. These animals， which have long been threatened by encroaching civilizations， may soon disappear from the Bering and other seas around the world unless protective measures are taken.2. For centuries whales， intelligent， air-breathing mammals， were abundant in the waters off the Alaskan coast； however， their isolated sanctuary was invaded by hunters in 1848 when an American whaling ship discovered the rich whaling area. During the next 60 years， whalers， in search of bone and oil， almost destroyed the entire whale population of the Bering Sea. Particularly harmed by the unrestricted commercial whaling were the slow-moving bowhead whales； so many of them were killed that the species never recovered. At present， the population of the bowhead is estimated at less than 3，000. According to many conservationists， it is the most endangered whale on earth.3. In an attempt to avoid the eradication of other whale species， countries interested in commercial whaling established the International Whaling Commission（IWC） in 1946. The IWC limits the number of whales that may be killed per year， and since 1973 the Commission has been steadily reducing its quotas. Today， only about seven countries still engage in commercial whaling. The reductions recommended by the IWC have brought loud cries of protest from countries with large whaling industries， especially Japan and the Soviet Union. These countries fear that their industries will not be able to survive such drastic cuts and that their national economies will suffer as a result. Although the IWC has no means of enforcing its regulations， since most whaling takes place in international water， the Japanese and the Soviets are reluctant to ignore them. Previous decisions to disregard whale quotas resulted in costly boycotts of Japanese and Russian products by American conservationists. The IWC would like to ban hunting of the endangered bowhead； however， this proposal has created a great deal of controversy in the United States due to strong protests from Alaskan Eskimos. The natives of Alaska resent the attempt to take away their hunting rights. For ove